I sit Ramon down and feed hungrily, pausing to kiss him softly as is our usual custom, before I straighten up. CK dismisses him as Xane arrives, and the two of them glower at each other from several feet away. Still no love lost there then.
“You are supposed to be playing nice,” I snap at them both and they adjust their features to matching neutral expressions.
“Ready to go?” Xane says, unable to keep the smug out of his tone.
“Yes,” I say. I turn to CK and pull him to me for a lingering kiss and his own smug returns as he wraps his arms around me.
“This moment is too brief. Please come to me before Tuesday,” he murmurs.
“I’ll try,” I murmur back, and I pull away from him. I feel as bereft as he looks, missing his touch but I smile at him as I grab Xane’s hand. “You do the honors,” I say to him and without a look back, he Astraports us to his home in The Underworld.
“Whoa,” he says as he looks at me and I look down at myself.
“Holy crap. How did that happen?” I ask, perplexed, as I run my hand down my Xerxei person.
“Because you are coming home,” he says quietly. “Don’t Shift back. Not yet.”
Well, I can’t even if I wanted to. This damn form is a bitch for impromptu appearances and for wanting to stick around.
“Xane, dear?” Xanthe’s voice makes me turn around and her frosty eyes go to me, sweeping over me in a not-so-friendly way until she reaches my eyes and she must recognize me, somehow.
“Your Majesty?” she asks, and I nod. “I almost didn’t recognize you. You are…” she puts her hand to her heart as Xerxes joins her. “Breathtaking,” he says with a fatherly smile. “Just as I knew you would be.”
I simper under his praise and Xane smiles at me, taking my hand. “That she is,” he murmurs. “Mother, Father, if you would excuse us, we have business to attend to and I think it best to remove Xerxei from prying eyes. Let the crowd know they can gawk at her after we have studied,” he says, waving his hand in the direction of the growing group of, indeed, gawkers.
“Of course,” Xanthe gushes and ushers us up the stairs as Xerxes turns and dismisses everyone. “Do let me know if you need anything,” she says.
“We will be fine,” Xane says as he closes his bedroom door and turns around to face me. “Alone at last,” he says with a wicked gleam and I laugh at him.
“You are incorrigible. I need to learn,” I say, sitting at his desk.
“And you are driving me to distraction,” he says with a sigh as he sits too. “Fine.” He opens the Grimoire and I feel the shimmer of Power come out of it.
“Mostly I need to learn how to read it,” I say. “I am fairly certain once I can do that, I will be okay.”
“The reading of it is easy,” he replies and picks up a pen and hands it to me. “This text is translated into English; it is merely the alphabet that you need to learn.”
“That seems too easy,” I say, taking the pen.
“Well, it wasn’t always the case. Thousands of years ago it was originally written in Babylonian in Demonic text. Now that, I can assure you, was a ball ache to learn at school.”
“You went to school?” I ask incredulously.
“Of course,” he says. “Didn’t you? Oh, well, no, I suppose you probably didn’t, being a girl.”
“I beg your pardon?” I ask, affronted.
“Sorry, I meant as a human, you wouldn’t have gone to school. I assume you must have, at some point since becoming a Vampire, as they don’t just hand out Harvard MBAs to any old fool.”
“Oh,” I say, placated. “No, I didn’t go to school as a human, but I have been to many universities over the years. I am just surprised that there are Demonic schools,” I say, looking slightly abashed. “I suppose that sounds incredibly dumb of me.”
“Not really. But our society runs the same way as anyone else’s. Education is important.”
“Yes, it is. So, you had to learn the original text?”
“Yes, and all the other translations that have been compiled along the way.”
“How many?” I ask interested.